IT infrastructure cost are quickly rising out of control for many companies. As computers and digital services have become central to most businesses, the need for IT has grown with it. The benefits of cloud computing give businesses many options. This could leave an office manager wondering how to keep their IT costs in check. There are several ways to lower these infrastructure cost though. If done correctly, you can lower these costs while making your IT department more efficient. Here are 5 easy tips and tricks that will show you how to lower your IT infrastructure costs.
Modernize Servers
If your company has a data center or server farm, consider replacing your servers with modern ones. Older servers are not only less efficient, they come with several hidden costs. They require more a lot of dedicated space as well as a lot of electricity for both running the server and cooling the server to prevent damage. Modern servers can store a lot more data and are a lot better at cooling. Buying new servers and reorganizing your data center in a more modern design could save you a considerable amount of money and space over the following years.
Reorganize Personal
Considering cuts and reorganization in IT personal can save the department a disproportionate amount of money. Since IT work is a skilled trade, there is always the risk of the department becoming top heavy. Too many IT experts can be useful, but it is not cost effective. Therefore, you should look at personal and work out a strategy to keep costs down. A very effective way to do this is set a policy of promoting IT staff to fill open positions instead of hiring experts. It’s also useful to regularly hire new IT’s straight from college each year. These steps will build a workforce that believes in your company and will work for less. IT requires people to work, make sure the costs associated with this staff don’t get out of hand.
Negotiate Network Costs
Plan to negotiate with your network provider and other contractors. You might think that you’re at a disadvantage in such negotiations since your company must have network connections. Set a goal of cutting your contracted expenses by a certain percentage and then try to get that reduction at the negotiating table. As always when negotiating, remember that the person with the most knowledge at a negotiation gets the best deal. Treat every contract with a vendor as a serious negotiation, and you’ll be surprised how quickly you cut your contract costs.
Reduce Data
You can save a great deal of money on storage space by purging old data from your servers. It is best to have a review of all data on servers every few years and make sure the data you have is material your company really needs to save. For data you have to keep but rarely use, consider compressing it to save space. If you can more efficiently use your data storage today, you will have to buy less new data tomorrow.
Virtualize What You Can
Your company should consider moving what data it can into virtual servers and the cloud. Most IT costs are associated with hardware and maintaining it. If your company limits how much hardware you have, you can cut through your IT budget. Additionally, software server solutions require far less maintenance and are easier to upgrade as technology advances. They are also more stable and secure when properly designed. Moving to cloud and virtual servers can sharply reduce your costs while offering your company more flexibility with its data.
Move Your Servers To A Data Center
Before moving to the cloud, you can consider colocation services to lower your costs. This would move your entire server setup to a data center. You would still have the flexibility to scale your servers based on your needs. Moreover, you would still have physical security around your servers. By moving your IT infrastructure to an existing data center, you could save on many of the infrastructure costs that prevent companies from investing in their business.
There are many easy ways to lower your IT infrastructure costs without sacrificing performance, flexibility and security. Upgrade your servers and data center to increase efficiency. Reorganize IT personal to lower costly wages. Negotiate better deals with contractors. Remove unwanted data from the servers. Consider server virtualization wherever possible. With these changes, your IT department will cost far less while providing better service.
